|
by Christopher Gerby The New York Yankees. The Los Angeles Lakers. The Sacramento Capitals? The Caps might not come to mind as a great sports dynasty, but a dedicated owner and relatively stable roster have helped them win five of the last six World Team Tennis championships. Armed with the # 2 doubles team in the world (Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor), Sacramento has gotten off to a typically strong start, leading the Western Conference with a 5-2 record. And that's without the services of Andre Agassi, who's scheduled to join the team for its regular season stretch drive. The story on the other side of the net couldn't be more different. A fruitless road trip left the New York Buzz at 1-6, tied with Philadelphia for the worst mark in WTT. Things were desperate enough to require a team meeting, called to address what 3-season Buzz veteran Justin Bower regarded as a lack of enthusiasm. "We had a huge pep talk with the team yesterday. We gotta come out with the fire that we had last year. That's the one thing (former Buzz member Mahesh Bhupathi) brought to the team. We came out, we were pumped up, we were excited to be out there. The first couple matches (this season), I felt like our heads were hanging a little bit." The dance pop of Daniel Bedingfield's "Gotta Get Through This," which played over the PA system before the match, might have summed up the team's approach to this match, given the absence of doubles specialist Don Johnson. Buzz coach Jolene Watanabe said Johnson injured his left wrist in a July 14th loss to Philadelphia, but Bower confirmed that DJ had been hampered all along. "All of us knew just how badly Don was hurting. He was playing with a lot of pain... Over the last couple of matches, he's been trying his absolute butt off to get it together for us, but today he just said he's hurting too much and it's hurting the rest of us." Johnson's status for the rest of the Team Tennis season is uncertain. "We thought that he would be fine, but he tried to hit today and he can't hold the racket," said Watanabe. "Don went home to see a specialist and we'll know later on if we'll have him back." First set: men's doubles -- Bower/Rudman vs. Knowles/Nestor With ailing Don Johnson on the shelf, the Buzz would have to pair Justin Bower with lifelong buddy Shaun Rudman, a fellow southpaw who hits with two hands off both sides. Rudman no longer plays on a regular basis, but at least he knows Bower well. "Shaun and I used to play a lot of doubs together. He's also my coach and one of my best friends, so we have some pretty good chemistry. And we have the unknown factor -- nobody really knows what to expect from us." Everyone, on the other hand, knows what to expect from Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, who teamed up to win the 2002 Australian Open and 1998 US Open. Successful service games from Bower, Nestor, and Rudman meant Knowles would have to hold serve to keep the set even. With a heavily taped left leg, the 31-year-old struggled. Knowles double faulted twice and couldn't dig a Rudman return off his shoelaces on game point. Just like that, the underdogs were up 3-1. Two aces from Bower in the next game earned a shout of "c'mon Boris" from one fan. Justin shrugged off the comparison to ex-teammate Becker, joking "I don't have the hair" before holding for a 4-1 lead. Nestor's second love hold of the evening got the Capitals to 2-4 and put the pressure on Rudman. He got to a 40-all game point, but Knowles confidently punched a backhand volley between the South Africans to break serve. However, as quickly as the momentum had shifted to the visiting team, it shifted right back. Bower eluded Knowles with a forehand pass to bring up another winner-take-all game point. Mark choked, throwing in a double fault to end it. To the delight of the half-capacity crowd, the Buzz had a 5-3 set in hand. In the words of Coach Watanabe, the upset win in men's doubles was nothing short of "wonderful! Shaun came in and his returns tonight were just superb." Bower chalked it up to previous experience. "It helps that we've played together. We know what to do. We came out and played a bunch of I-formations together at the beginning. I know how he serves, so my timing getting up was pretty good." OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 5, CAPITALS 3 Second set: mixed doubles -- Bower/De Villiers vs. Knowles/Likhovtseva The shock of losing a set in what should be his team's strongest event was not about to faze Capitals coach Wayne Bryan. Father of the reigning French Open champion Bryan twins, Wayne is a real character in his own right, shouting words of encouragement in a voice that reminds one of Bill Murray's character from Caddyshack. "Coming back right here, let's go, coming back," he assured Mark Knowles and Elena Likhovtseva as they took to the court for mixed doubles. After dropping serve twice in men's doubles, Knowles did it again to open the mixed. This stoked the fires of a quartet of young male season ticket holders I referred to last week as "the back row rowdies." They were in full voice tonight, shouting "Bower Power" as Justin rocketed in a pair of aces en route to a 2-0 lead. Two games later, it was a less catchy "Nannie Power" chant as Nannie de Villiers shrugged off a double fault to hold for 3-1. With an 8-4 lead in the overall tally, all was right in the land of the New York Buzz. Leading 3-2, but trailing 15-30 on his serve, Bower called De Villiers off an overhead, then hit the ball long. He immediately followed that miscue with a break-surrendering double fault. The set was tied up and Coach Bryan had reason to be excited. "Let's turn this sucker around," he said, demanding high fives from Ally Baker and Daniel Nestor. Likhovtseva held for 4-3, the first Capitals lead of the night. De Villiers faced set point in Game 8, but rallied with a swing volley winner and an unreturnable serve to force a tiebreak...
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 9, CAPITALS 8 Third set: women's doubles -- De Villiers/Perry vs. Baker/Likhovtseva Having already made an impression on the sidelines with her big hoop earrings and fetching smile, 17-year-old Ally Baker would now see her first on-court action of the evening. Having umpire Candy Pantano twice announce her name as "Ashley Baker" was not the introduction she would have been looking for, though. ("It's Ally," she good-naturedly pointed out.) Nannie de Villiers had bigger problems to worry about, like her season-long inability to buy a first serve. A double fault in the set's opening game prompted Nannie to bounce her racket for approximately the 50th time this month. A volley error on break point upset her even more -- De Villiers whacked a ball into the net as the Capitals relished a tie in the overall score. Very slow to take the court at the start of the set, Baker and Likhovtseva got a time violation warning while conferencing in Game 2. "We were waiting for you!" Baker exclaimed to Pantano before putting in some good lefty serves for a 2-0 lead. Game 4 saw the back row rowdies seriously test the patience of Elena Likhovtseva. She glared at the raucous fans and even said something to them, only to be drowned out by a "you serve like a girl" taunt. The Russian held for 3-1 and looked happy to be changing ends. After De Villiers held for 2-3, the Buzz had a couple golden opportunities against Baker's serve. Likhovtseva saved one break point with a smash, then fended off another by double hitting a volley. Also known as a "carry," this rather blatant violation of the rules went unnoticed by the umpire and led to a heated argument by the Buzz. With one last chance to break Baker's serve, Shenay Perry knocked off a winning volley, waved her arms, and got the biggest ovation of the night. The set was dead even at 3 games apiece and the back row rowdies weren't the only fans fired up. Two routine holds later, it was time for another tiebreak...
OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 13, CAPITALS 13 Fourth set: women's singles -- Shenay Perry vs. Ally Baker The battle of American teenagers didn't last long. When Shenay Perry jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Ally Baker, Capitals coach Wayne Bryan got out the hook. He substituted the vastly more experienced Elena Likhovtseva in for Baker, who took the news very well, crying out "Go Elena!" before her teammate had played a single point. It looked like a good move when Likhovtseva went up 40-15, but she then double faulted and ended a pair of lengthy rallies with backhand errors. It was all Perry, up a double break now at 3-0. Shenay blasted two aces and two service winners, extending her lead to 4-0. After the changeover, she gave a thumbs up to the crowd, utterly brimming with confidence. Perry hit a lovely drop shot for a clean winner in Game 5, but Likhovtseva fought back to hold for 1-4. Sacramento was merely postponing the inevitable. Leading 40-15, set points in hand, Perry pushed a backhand volley into the open court, hopped into the air, and pumped her fist. The 19-year-old had stared down a young lefty and a wily righthander, dispatching them by a combined score of 5-1. Jolene Watanabe stopped short of agreeing that Shenay Perry has locked up MVP honors for the 2003 New York Buzz, but she knows the kid from Washington, DC has been a real bright spot. "Right now she's been playing so wonderfully. She's very young, too, so we're trying to have her play one match at a time and not think about anything." OVERALL SCORE: BUZZ 18, CAPITALS 14 Fifth set: men's singles -- Justin Bower vs. Daniel Nestor The Capitals still had a glimmer of hope. Daniel Nestor's wicked serve has paid dividends throughout the season and a win over Bower could force overtime and/or a supertiebreaker. When the Canadian stormed out to a 2-0 lead, this scenario was looking pretty reasonable. The back row rowdies were having none of it, though, screaming their heads off with "B-U-Z-Z" painted across their four bare chests. And after being burned by some very questionable officiating earlier in the match, New York got a real break at the end of Game 3. A second serve by Bower was at least three inches wide, but nobody called it out. Bower grinned, now on the board at 1-2. Nestor was not amused as he pleaded with umpire Pantano. "Did you see his face after that? He's laughing his head off because it's so ridiculous. You weren't even watching!" Pantano calmly replied, "I was watching. Let's play." After a mutual display of impressive left-handed serving, Nestor attempted to close it out at 4-3. He led 30-15, but Bower was finally getting a read on his serve. Justin struck a winning return down the line, celebrating with a double fist pump. The very next point saw Bower lace another backhand winner and shake his fist while jogging around the court. Nestor answered with an ace, but double faulted on game point to force yet another tiebreak. The Capitals were in dire straits now. If Bower could pull out the tiebreak, New York would have its second victory of the season...
The win may only improve coach Jolene Watanabe's record to 2-6, but she's still speaking highly of her New York Buzz. "We're not playing with desperation at all. This whole year, we've just had some unlucky breaks. They know that and they know they can beat every team in this league... They're not gonna give up, especially since this is only the second half of the season." Justin Bower was more realistic, conceding "our season's over as far as being in contention." Nonetheless, he believes the fans "just want to see us play our best tennis. Obviously, we want to try and produce that. That was the idea, to come out here and look for chances and look for places where we can produce some magic. I think we had an awesome night tonight." Perhaps nicest of all for Justin Bower was being able to score this rare victory alongside late fill-in Shaun Rudman. "We grew up in the same town, played against each other at least 20 times in juniors growing up, and played a bunch of tournaments together on the tour, so I've known him since I was 10 years old." The loquacious Bower does have a bit of a twisted sense of humor, by the way, and he couldn't resist calling Rudman "the most homophobic guy I've ever met." Supposedly Bower needed some help stretching before the match, only to have Rudman respond, "Not gonna do it, you're on your own." An odd footnote to an odd night which saw the hapless Buzz upset the mighty Capitals. |